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In fight against Zika, Singapore releases more mosquitoes

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  • In fight against Zika, Singapore releases more mosquitoes

    October 16, 2016

    They’re male, they’re Aedes and they don’t bite.

    Singapore will be releasing an army of bacteria-infected mosquitoes on Tuesday in a bid to suppress the Aedes aegypti mosquito population as the country battles with an outbreak of Zika.

    The World Health Organisation warned last week that the mosquito-borne virus, already found in 70 countries including Singapore, will "highly likely" spread further in the Asia-Pacific region.

    Thousands of male Aedes aegypti mosquitoes carrying the Wolbachia bacteria, which is harmless to humans, will be released regularly into streets, stairwells and open areas in three areas of Singapore as part of a six-month field study.

    Their target is the female Aedes aegypti, the primary carrier of viruses such as Zika, dengue, chikungunya, and yellow fever.
    Research shows that when male mosquitoes carrying Wolbachia mate with female mosquitoes that do not have the bacteria, their eggs do not hatch.

    "Multiple releases of male Wolbachia-carrying Aedes aegypti mosquitoes over time will thus eventually lead to a reduced urban Aedes aegypti population," said Singapore’s National Environmental Agency when announcing the field study.

    "If successful, this will complement our existing mosquito control efforts and eventually lead to the suppression of the Aedes aegypti mosquito population and a possible curtailment of dengue or Zika transmission," Singapore’s minister for the environment and water resources, Masagos Zulkifli, told parliament in September.


    Singapore’s approach differs from that of the Eliminate Dengue programme, which releases both male and female mosquitoes infected with Wolbachia into the environment. When males with Wolbachia mate with females that also have the bacteria, the eggs will still hatch but will contain Wolbachia — a naturally occurring bacteria found in 60 per cent of insects such as butterflies, moths, dragonflies and fruit flies.

    "This allows Wolbachia to invade the mosquito population and once invaded, the mosquitoes no longer are capable of transmitting dengue or Zika," said Prof Scott O’Neill, director of the Institute of Vector Borne Disease atAustralia’s Monash University, who has been working with the bacteria for more than 25 years and leads the team of international researchers at Eliminate Dengue.
    READ MORE
    Thousands of male Aedes aegypti mosquitoes carrying the Wolbachia bacteria will be released regularly into streets, stairwells and open areas in three areas of Singapore as part of a six-month field study.
    ?Addressing chronic disease is an issue of human rights ? that must be our call to arms"
    Richard Horton, Editor-in-Chief The Lancet

    ~~~~ Twitter:@GertvanderHoek ~~~ GertvanderHoek@gmail.com ~~~

  • #2
    Wolbachia study in Singapore

    October 18, 2016

    SINGAPORE — The National Environment Agency (NEA) on Tuesday (Oct 18) kicked off the second phase of a study into how Wolbachia-carrying Aedes aegypti mosquitoes can help curb disease-bearing the mosquito population. It released about 3,000 male Wolbachia-carrying Aedes aegypti mosquitoes in Braddell Heights on Tuesday.

    Here are some information on the study, which will span six months:


    Read More
    SINGAPORE — The National Environment Agency (NEA) on Tuesday (Oct 18) kicked off the second phase of a study into how Wolbachia-carrying Aedes aegypti mosquitoes can help curb disease-bearing the mosquito population. It released about 3,000 male Wolbachia-carrying Aedes aegypti mosquitoes in Braddell Heights on Tuesday. Here are some information on the study, which will span six months. ? What is Wolbachia?
    ?Addressing chronic disease is an issue of human rights ? that must be our call to arms"
    Richard Horton, Editor-in-Chief The Lancet

    ~~~~ Twitter:@GertvanderHoek ~~~ GertvanderHoek@gmail.com ~~~

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